Some hours later Ortega and Messner finally turned the radio on.
The time had come to finally get some orders at least.
“Baker team to base” said Messner.
“Baker team to base”
The Baker team's doctor went on like that for what literally felt like two minutes.
Right when he was passing the phone to Ortega so he could give it a go; the radio finally crackled the reply they were waiting so eagerly to hear.
“Covey leader to Skorpio. Come in Skorpio”
As soon as he heard it, Ortega’s face lit up. It wasn’t actually Trautman talking, but the message relator on board the radio airplane.
“Here I am Covey leader. This is Skorpio Skorpio actual, I’m receiving loud and clear”
(*the 'actual' name meant that Scorpio in person was talking, not someone else repeating his messages).
A few seconds of silence ensued while the radio operator listened carefully to Trautman's message.
“What’s the sit-rep Skorpio” (*situation report).
“The target is NOT confirmed, Covey leader. I repeat: NOT confirmed, but there's something else.
We have a situation, sir”
“God damn it, Scorpio. Okay. Tell me what you have”
“It's the construction site of a base with an attached prisoners' camp, sir. A POW camp and we have some POWs which appear to be Western. Height and faces match up. I repeat, I confirm the presence of Western POWs, three at least. They might be American”
“Roger that Scorpio. Give me a sec to send your message forward”
-
When the message reached the command bunker, Trautman, Garner and Loyd were all right there in front of the radio operator, and they almost jumped on the spot when they heard it.
“I want a Hatchet Force at the ready and two F4s in flight, and I want them now,” Truatman said.
“And notify the DOD too” (*Department of Defence).
Everyone inside the bunker started pacing back and forth in a state of uneasiness.
“There needs to be an emergency rescue set up and put into place” he said.
“I need...”
“We can't order them to attack,” said Loyd who was standing right behind Trautman.
“What did you just say?”
“Hostage rescue raids can't be improvised Trautman. Your men are on a reconnaissance mission, not an offensive one”
That was true.
Loyd's objection was a rational one but, as per usual, he was only thinking about advancing his career and little else.
Had Trautman's men actually managed to free some Western prisoners from the Vietcong, maybe even some US citizens, and on their very first over the fence mission, it would have been too much for him to stand, and too hard to compete against or beat.
At the end of the day, the 'points' the Baker team scored weren't merely bonus points in favour of Trautman itself, but his entire war tactics strategy as well.
That was something Loyd absolutely couldn't afford.
Trautman would never have imagined that Loyd could go as far as that. In fact, when he heard what Loyd was saying, he was stunned outright.
After the initial shock passed however, Trautman considered his comments further.
As much as he hated admitting it, there was no denying that Loyd's objection was rational per se, and perhaps more so than usual.
The Baker team was currently on a reconnaissance mission and as they were, his team was neither armed to attack nor equipped to move hostages to the any kind of LZ.
Moreover, they hadn’t even actually established a precise location for the potential LZ. He was certain that Nixon would have unquestionably given the needed authorization for it, but that was merely Trautman's personal professional opinion.
Shit – he said to himself.
Destiny had just given the general a plausible reason to stop the Baker Team, and the general had caught it in full.
However their discussion would have ended, the colonel wouldn’t have come out from that business all that well.
Nevertheless, Trautman wasn’t going to give up that easily.
On the contrary, he’d give it everything he had left.
“No pre-planned rescue raid has ever worked prior to now in the history of this conflict, and you know this quite well, general. Only an improvised one did, improvised precisely like this one, and so it might this one too. WE will never have a better chance present itself than the one at hand”
“That is unfounded, Trautman”
“No, it's not. That’s what experience is teaching us. In twenty four hours those prisoners could be anywhere else”
“Maybe you’re right, Trautman, but then again, maybe you’re not. You’re saying that your men have seen some potential POWs that potentially may have been Westerners. Whatif they were second generation French? Or mercenaries for that matter? How can your men be so sure? Do they have any direct identification to go by, like names? No, they don't. They have only got what they’ve seen through their binoculars as proof. Besides, if that weren’t enough, they’re neither equipped nor prepared to undertake a hostage-rescue raid, and as long as I’m in charge here, we won't put un-identified civilians at risk with improvised actions. You’re not going to attack, Trautman. Using the prisoners as an alibi, Washington will authorize a limited yet official landing into Laos. It won’t be your men attacking though, The Fifth will do it, and they’ll do it by the book. Or the Navy Seals, depending on which unit happens to be closer at the time, but it will get done by the book”
Loyd’s tone of voice seemed to change.
He bore a distinct resemblance to a father talking to his hyperactive child.
“Colonel, we both agree on the need to attack at the earliest opportune time but let’s just not do it like that. Try to see it from where I stand, colonel. We don’t even know what’s really hidden down there. I’m only asking you for time, and no more than twenty-four hours Trautman, that’s it. It’s the only way we can be absolutely sure that we’ve done everything possible to ensure the raid doesn’t turn into a massacre”
Trautman swallowed that bitter pill.
He was almost shaking in anger by then.
He had trained his men for situations exactly like that.
He created that unit – and had trained it hard for two long years - intentionally for coping with situations similar to this one, and Loyd knew it.
The others with him in that room had absolutely no idea that the Baker team was deliberately and specifically trained to deal with situations like this and worse. If the Baker team was suggesting a raid, it was because they knew they could do it. Evaluating the probability of success of any and all missions was part of their job.
“At least ask them what they think about it, their opinions on the matter” said the colonel, but he already knew how the general was going to get around this.
“Trautman....” Loyd began,
“Asking your men if they want to attack is like asking a thief if he wants to give stealing the Queen of England's crown a try. They’d never say no”
Trautman’s face began to redden. Fundamentally, the problem was that whether MacV's personnel knew anything or nothing at all about the Baker Team program – Loyd’s opinion could very well be seen as a legit and sound one. All in all, among the other special force units, there was an unsettling way of making decisions and thinking in general ('smash everyone, win everything)' was especially popular.
What made him angry most of all however, was that the colonel had just spent the last two years making sure the Baker teams were well above and superior to that childish way of thinking. Loyd in fact was accusing them in front of the entire MacV staff of having that kind of mentality. The staff had absolutely no idea about all the work which had been done to triumph over that disturbing mentality, and they were being accused of being exactly what the colonel had never wanted them to be.
Son of a bitch – Trautman thought to himself.
He was almost shaking with rage.
That day, Loyd had basically hit rock bottom, the lowest he could possibly reach, and yet, there wasn’t anything the colonel could say or do about it.
It was then that he decided to give up.
He closed his eyes, took a deep breath and then turned to the radio operator.
-
Ortega had been waiting in the dark, unaware of the developments when he suddenly heard an airplane engine hum in the distance.
It was quite probably, the very same airplane he was radioing.
“What the fuck is he doing?” Messner asked.
“How the fuck should I know?”
Ortega picked the microphone up.
“High Eagle, do you copy? Go back east, for fuck’s sake, and do it now”
All of a sudden they heard crackling like noises coming from down at the base and beyond the hill as small weapons began shooting into the sky in the direction of the plane.
“Do you copy that High Eagle? You are too fucking close, fuck!”
The radio reply from above them came almost immediately thereafter.
“Direct order from the command centre: abort mission. Do you copy that Scorpio? We are under small arms fire; this communication won't last. Give me a Roger That, Scorpio. Give me a Roger That to abort mission: DO NOT free the prisoners”
Ortega pushed away the microphone as if it had suddenly become dangerous.
Ortega then turned towards Messner, almost to see whether the expression on his face showed if he’d actually heard right or not.
It couldn't be.
No, there had to be a mistake.
Postponing the attack made absolutely no sense, not without at least discussing it with the Baker team first.
Ortega then turned to face the others, almost asking for help.
There was something amiss. Something was very bad, indeed.
Taking into consideration the time lapse needed to forward the messages, the order to abort had to arrive before they were shot at. This could only mean that Trautman had made his decision before the airplane ended up under enemy fire, so they couldn’t have considered it for more than a minute.
The order was therefore, executive.
No, that couldn’t be.
There was definitely something wrong.
In the darkness some green tracers made their way up to the sky and were as long as laser rays.
Jesus Christ – Ortega thought.
He then turned back to his teammates.
The team may not have been at risk when it came to being located but certainly having the Vietcong in a state of emergency wasn’t certainly going to make things any easier.
Ortega had to reply to the radio plane message. He had to give a Roger that to the last communication despite how shitty or pointless he felt it may have been and yet he couldn't go through with it.
There was something making him not do it.
“Skorpio, do you copy that? Confirm. We are already moving out”
A lightning flare shot into the sky, throwing a pale, dim light onto everything.
Surprised by the light, Ortega's teammates suddenly lowered their heads dropping down into the shadows.
As the flare was slowly swept away by the wind, the jungle filled with moving shadows.
Ortega looked at that flare in distress.
“Scorpio” the radio crackled again.
If that base had the cheek to use things like tracers and flares, it was obviously because it wasn’t afraid of anything. Neither the Laotian government nor the US forces caused them the least bit concern.
It was almost a threat, or an invitation by the VCs (herewe are motherfuckers, come and get us. We fear nothing).
An entire army could be hiding in there, found on neutral soil of a neutral country bypassing all the laws generally followed in conventional warfare.
That war was completely backwards.
Ortega reluctantly moved the microphone closer to his mouth and then just stood there for a second, considering it further.
Shit – he thought.
The order not to attack was coming from Trautman himself and not basically from some asshole like most of the others were.
Trautman was the only man in the whole world that Ortega really trusted.
Everyone on the Baker team was against leaving those men there and that included him.
He simply wasn’t capable of leaving them there.
He just couldn’t fulfil his duty as a team leader under those circumstances.
Messner, Rambo, Barry, Danforth, Jorgenson, Coletta and Krakauer were looking at him. The entire Baker team were watched him from the shadows. They were still hiding and even in the dark it was evident by the look on their faces what they wanted.
Ortega still had a few more moments to reply to the radio plane and confirm his order.
Whatever decision he was planning to make, he would have to make it now.
They didn’t even ask us our probability of success – Ortega mused.
That wasn’t like Trautman.
Someone had made that decision other than Trautman.
“Answer me, Skorpio. Give me a Copy That” repeated the radio.
“Scorpio”
“Skorpio, Skorpio do you copy? I have to move, we have only got a few seconds at most”
Under the scrutinizing eye of all his mates, Ortega passed the microphone back to Messner.
He calmly took it from Ortega and turned the radio off while a the smile on his face got wider.
Even though everyone in the dim room was silent, the Baker Team continued to eye their team leader.
The second one to flash a smile lighting up the dark was Barry.
His teeth appeared incredibly white in the darkness as he stood right in front of Ortega.
Shortly thereafter, Coletta, who was on his right, chuckled despite covering his mouth with a hand.
It was evident that they were all happy now.
They preferred to die saving the lives of some prisoners rather than on some shitty pointless mission like Black Spot had been, for instance.
Ortega shook his head however, feeling somewhat angry with himself. His decision worried him. This feeling he had didn’t feel wrong so much from a legal point of view because he was sure it wasn’t a legal issue. In terms of legality, by pretending they hadn't received the last communication, they could justify the raid as an ’on the field' decision, and this would have spared them all the martial court.
So it wasn’t so much the idea of being court martialled either, but quite frankly getting caught up in a mess of such epic proportions. It was a suicide mission and he could imagine what would happen when the shit hit the fan. He couldn't fathom why he or any of the others would want to do it, for that matter.
Maybe Ortega had just gone insane.
Maybe, that night in Laos they had all gone crazy, because only soldiers as crazy as them could ever end up in a situation as absurd as this.
Ortega sighed.
Eventually, almost justifying himself, he said
“There’s no way Trautman made an order like that so it didn’t come from him and that's the reason why I did what I did”
No one said a word. There was no need to add anything else.
Even now, they were all thinking the same thing.
Ortega sighed again and then said:
“Now go get some sleep, Baker team. Tomorrow is going to be a trying day. And I’ll need you all to be on top form”
Slowly then they all went to get themselves ready for the night.
They would be fighting at dawn.